OMAHA
, Neb. – Winners of a record 26-straight games entering the championship series of the College World Series, Coastal Carolina—the hottest team in college baseball—fell victim to a career day from projected Top 5 MLB Draft pick LSU starter sophomore lefty Kade Anderson in front of a crowd of 25,761 at Charles Schwab Field.
A pitchers’ duel between Anderson and Coastal Carolina starter sophomore righty Cameron Flukey led to an eventual 1-0 LSU victory, handing the Chanticleers their first loss since April 22 and making Sunday a must-win game for the Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champions.
Anderson hurled a complete-game shutout, using 130 pitches in a three-hit effort. Coastal Carolina worked five walks—the most issued by Anderson in his LSU career—and drew a pair of hit by pitches to put runners aboard in 8-of-9 innings, but could not convert with runners in scoring position. Flukey struck out nine for the sixth time in his last eight appearances, conceding just four hits and one run over 6.0 innings pitched.
“If it was going to be easy there would be more than one national champion,” said Sun Belt Coach of the Year Kevin Schnall. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to regroup. We’ve won 26 in a row. Let’s just call it is what it is, the odds were not in our favor to go 28-0 and win this national championship. What’s eerily similar is in 2016 we lost Game 1, 3-0, when a left-handed pitcher threw a complete-game shutout. Again, we’ve got to respond, rebound and regroup. We’ve got [Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year] Jacob Morrison pitching tomorrow. Answer the bell.”
With two on—via walks—and two out in the top of the first, Anderson fanned Coastal Carolina sophomore outfielder Blagen Pado on three pitches to strand a pair of Chanticleers.
Flukey worked ahead of Tigers leadoff man freshman outfielder Derek Curiel, 0-2, before issuing a rare walk on four-consecutive balls. Curiel advanced to second on a ground out and came around to score on a single up the middle off the bat of LSU sophomore shortstop Steven Milam to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead that proved to be the difference. Flukey then proceeded to strike out LSU’s No. 4 and No. 5 hitters on seven combined pitches to close out the first and limit the damage.
After an uneventful second inning, the first two batters reached base for Coastal Carolina in the top of the third—with junior catcher Caden Bodine getting hit by a pitch and senior outfielder Sebastian Alexander delivering a first-pitch-swinging single through the right side of the infield. Anderson cleanly fielded a bunt attempt by Chanticleers junior second baseman Blake Barthol to gun down the lead runner at third for the first out of the inning. After sophomore third baseman Walker Mitchell struck out on three pitches, Alexander got a good jump on a steal attempt, but slid past third base and was tagged out. Flukey worked around a two-out double off the wall in right by Milam in the bottom half of the third inning, striking out the ensuing batter—LSU sophomore outfielder Jake Brown.
Pado led off the fourth with a double down the left field line, but was stranded on second on three-straight strikeouts by Anderson. Flukey fanned LSU junior second baseman Daniel Dickinson on three pitches to strand a Tiger for the fourth-straight frame.
Bodine reached again on a second-consecutive hit by pitch in the top of the fifth—giving Coastal Carolina five-straight innings with a runner aboard—but once again the Chanticleers could not capitalize.
Flukey and Anderson traded 1-2-3 innings in the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth. With runners at the corners and two out in the bottom of the sixth, Flukey induced a ground out to senior shortstop Ty Dooley to end the LSU threat.
The Chanticleers put four balls into play in the top of the seventh. Junior designated hitter Dean Mihos legged out an infield single on a soft-hit ball up the middle, but would get no further than second base on three ground-ball outs. Coastal Carolina turned to sophomore lefty Dominick Carbone out of the bullpen and he worked around a two-out single to keep the Tiger advantage at 1-0.
Mitchell drew a two-out walk to give the Chanticleers life in the top of the eighth, but was stranded on a three-pitch strikeout of Pado. Carbone induced a double play ball to negate a one-out single by Brown and close out the eighth.
Chanticleers freshman catcher Domenico Tozzi drew a two-out, pinch-hit walk in his first College World Series at-bat in the top of the ninth, but Anderson got a fly out to right by Coastal Carolina senior outfielder Wells Sykes to polish off the complete game.
“We lost to a really good team today, to a really good pitcher,” said Schnall. “You’ve just got to tip your hat to a guy that executed some big pitches. On the other end, you think about their run. We had Curiel 0-2 and he grinded it out to a 3-2 count and drew a walk. Their three-hole hitter, Milam, gets a two-strike base hit with a runner at second to give them their first and only run. But, ultimately I thought we played very well. We had runners on. We just weren’t able to get that big hit with runners in scoring position.”
With Coastal Carolina’s championship series appearance joining Marshall men’s soccer’s run to the finale of the Men’s College Cup, the Sun Belt is 1-of-5 conferences to have multiple teams appear in an NCAA Division I national championship final this season, alongside the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
Despite the loss, Coastal Carolina (56-12) still paces the nation with 56 wins and an .824 winning percentage. Chanticleers are the second Sun Belt team to compete in the College World Series (Louisiana 2000), the second to advance to the national semifinals (Louisiana 2000) and the first to advance to the championship series. It is the second all-time trip to the College World Series (2016) and the championship series (2016) for Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers were shut out, 3-0, in the opening game of the championship series in 2016, but rallied for back-to-back one-run wins (5-4 and 4-3) to win their first national championship.
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